dub ditch picnic

At once fragile, monolithic and meditative, this collaboration between Mpala Garoo and Clathus yields one of our heaviest releases to date. Three long tracks of murky, deep-sea drones and fungal drift. Melodies soaked in reverb, delay and flanger become smeared into a dreamlike haze, slowly floating through the near-dark depths of some distant sea. Yet through the gloom come traces of light from the surface, shimmering to the depths, offering glimpses of the strange coral cathedrals, long-sunken mountain ranges and bewildering creatures that dwell in this abyssopelagic zone.The instruments at work here are not important — in fact, it’s almost impossible to discern exactly what they are. What matters is where this tape takes you. Aura Level Fountain do not merely create gorgeous tones, they create an entire aural soundscape and leave you there to feel your way around.

Death metal it ain’t, but you still won’t know what hit you after spinning this. 3 Leafs jam more sounds, textures, influences and genres into this tape than all the music on your hard drive, only they do it seamlessly. Running the gamut from white-hot This Heat-esque Krautrock, spaced-out dub, drone and psych to bizarre micro-tonal melodies and tropical flourishes, this album travels some serious distance. Genrehopping isn’t even relevant here — maybe genre isn’t either. 3 Leafs are on their own deserted tropical island hurtling through the cosmos, receiving jettisoned radio transmissions from Earth and firing them right back at us. A true collision of sonic worlds. Highly recommended listening for our 21st century attention-deficient listening habits